ACFL Division 1: Athlone v Maryland

posted 16 Feb 2015, 14:37 by Athlone GAA

ACFL Division 1:

Athlone began their 2015 ACFL Division 1 campaign
with a defeat when they went down to Maryland by five points in
Drumraney on Sunday.

Athlone started brightly and opened the scoring in
the first minute with a fine Ray Connellan point. Maryland equalised
with a fine score of their own two minutes later but Athlone opened up a
three point gap with further points from Connellan
(0-2) and John Egan. Maryland struck back with two quick points of
their own and were unlucky not to take the lead when Conor Devaney
pulled off a great save from a close-range effort to prevent a seemingly
certain goal The reprieve was short-lived however,
as an equalising point was followed up by another Maryland goal chance
that was this time taken, before another quick point saw Maryland open
up a lead by 1-5 to 0-4

To their credit, Athlone bounced back and regained
the initiative to finish the first half strongly. First Mickey Greene
crashed a superb shot through a crowd of defenders to bring the deficit
back to a point, before Noel Mulligan was
unlucky to see his rasping effort come back off the crossbar. Two
further Ray Connellan points saw Athlone lead at the interval on a
scoreline of 1-6 to 1-5.

Just as Athlone had in the first half, Maryland
started positively with the aid of the wind and drew level within a
minute. Ray Connellan restored Athlone’s advantage from a free before
Callum McCormack drew Maryland level again after
38 minutes. Maryland began to increase the pressure at this stage and
opened up a two point gap with 10 minutes remaining. Substitute Joe
Fallon pulled one back from a free before the game’s key moment, a
second Maryland goal, gave them a four point lead
with 52 minutes on the clock.

With the game slipping away from them, Athlone made
one final push and another Fallon free was followed up by a goal chance
for Noel Mulligan. However the home keeper pulled off a good save to
finally break Athlone’s resistance and two
late points saw the hosts victorious on a scoreline of 2-11 to 1-9.